Field
The present invention relates to a filament winding apparatus.
Related Art
The filament winding method is a conventionally known method of manufacturing a high pressure tank. The filament winding method winds fibers impregnated with a thermosetting resin (hereinafter may be simply called “fibers”) on a liner that is a core of a high pressure tank and cures the thermosetting resin of the fibers to manufacture the high pressure tank. A high pressure tank with a fiber-reinforced resin layer of the high intensity formed on a surface layer of a liner is manufactured by the filament winding method.
A filament winding apparatus of winding a fiber bundle consisting of a plurality of fibers on a liner is used in manufacture of the high pressure tank by the filament winding method. The filament winding apparatus expands the width of the fiber bundle or converges the fiber bundle on a roller of a guide assembly configured to guide the fiber bundle to the outer surface of the liner and sets the position of the fiber bundle on the roller to an adequate position to wind the fiber bundle on the liner. The filament winding apparatus winds the fiber bundle according to a program that controls the move of the guide assembly and the rotation and the actuation of the liner, so as to form a high pressure tank in a designed configuration. JP 2011-093276A describes a technique that deforms a feed fiber width adjustment roller according to the width of a fiber bundle in the process of guiding the fiber bundle to the outer surface of a liner, so as to expand the width of the fiber bundle or converge the fiber bundle.
The technique described in JP 2011-093276A can expand the width of the fiber bundle or converge the fiber bundle but has not taken into account controlling the position of the fiber bundle on the roller. Similarly the techniques described in JP 2015-000553A and WO 2014-054266A1 have not taken into account controlling the position of the fiber bundle on the roller. In the case where the position of the fiber bundle on the roller is deviated from an adequate location, there is a likelihood that the high pressure tank is not formed in the designed configuration even when the filament winding apparatus drives the guide assembly and the liner to wind the fiber bundle according to a predetermined program.
Thus, techniques which can control the position of the fiber bundle on the roller of the guide assembly in the filament winding apparatus are desired.